Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

Ah, the Hidden Palace Zone. One of the levels that was cut out of the Sonic 2 Beta. Of all the Sonic games I know, Sonic 2 for the Genesis/Mega Drive had been changed the most radical since it’s beta stage: 3 zones were cut (Wood Zone, Hidden Palace Zone and Genocide City Zone), some others got name changes (Neo Green Hill Zone -> Aquatic Ruin Zone), while another was completely rebuilt (Casino Night Zone). Anyway, of all zones cut, HPZ was the most complete, so the most likely one to be converted. Ok, enough of the story, let the rating begin.

Conversion Completeness
Unfortunatly, HPZ was never released in Sonic 2 (tho it got a little reference in Sonic & Knuckles), but screenshots of the beta were released, so I guess I have to resort to them from memory… Every tile I’ve seen seen the screenshots seem to be there, even part of the background I didn’t know about (lower most part). It even has the animations, and a lot tiles for them, due to the background waterfalls. Even the “Master Emerald” is there (Take note that the big green emerald that looks like the Master Emerald was used to cover the sucker tubes, and not to turn into “Super Sonic” or something. Just to let you know ;p) Speaking of Sucker Tubes, they are two tiles wide, so be carefull when using them. I’m amazed about the size of the set, even tho it may not be complete (it’s a beta!)…

Masking
Masking is almost perfect, no crooked lines whatsoever. Be carefull with the half-pipe type tiles tho: the worst disavantage of Jazz is that he can’t run up walls like Sonic can. Also, I have a complaint about the steepness of the green platform. Normally, I’d avoid angles above 45 degrees, that one is almost 70! A better choice would have been to make the mask stairlike, the green extensions are perfect for that. Those two thing (half-pipes and very steep hill) aren’t completely useless, since Jazz can run on them so some extent. Still, he’s no Sonic, so use them with caution.

Extras
I can be really short in this category: no extras like poles, destructible blocks, etc. The sucker tubes were part of the original, hence them being mentioned in the first section. I can understand the author didn’t want to make it too big, but still… the TSF set size limit is 4096 AFAIK. It would have been nice to put at least a Sonic/Tails/Robotnik sign in it, or some enemies just for the show.

Example level
I’m not gonna rate the level, but it’s worth mentioning it’s a remake of the Act 1 beta level. It’s pretty close tho, from what I’ve seen in the screenshots. I just wish the author would have chosen better music: I’d have preferred having Song #3 (the original HPZ music, now for 2P Mystic Cavern Zone) or #10 in the Sound test(lost music, sounds appropriate for HPZ) and even if he didn’t have them J1 Crysilis would have made a good substitute. Still, example levels are only ment to show off the tileset, which it does well.

Verdict
Pretty good conversion of the Sonic 2 Hidden Palace Zone, it’s a shame it’s not as usefull to JJ2 like it is to Sonic 2. With some improvising on the half-pipes you can make a fine level with this. Recommended, if it had more extras I would have given it a higher rating.

- JelZe GoldRabbit =:3

Very nice remix with cool sounds. tempo is good enough. i think i would give something like 7 but i don’t rate musics, i just comment them. ;p
its quite nice remix, which is worth of downloading imo.

What sabaspaz said. an interesting level with cats who swear at you. ;D

Review is coming later. im too busy now.

You should credit me 2 because i made the background and fixed many bugs.

ITS GREAT!
(Essentially blank review, rating removal. Yay this sucks whee argh. ~Violet)[This review has been edited by Violet CLM]

Ther ar hidden warps, they will bring you to the seeker powerup =P

Mayby you must include the tileset?

=_-

I’ve seen this pack got a major update, so I replayed, now has come the time to re-review it. The new review will probably not be as long as the old one, because I am too lazy to write such a big one again. ;D

When compared to the old version, you can see that it was improved a lot. The levels are now longer, a new one was added, aswell as some other changes.

In the first level you meet Eva, who tells you that her mum has gone crazy, and she decided to catch Eva’s little Froggy and turn him into a moster with a morph machine. Soon after, Jazz gets caught up by Mrs Fat & Ugly and put into the castle dungeon.

From there on, you’ll have to find a way to escape, find the frog and defeat Eva’s mum.

All the levels are very fun to play, with lots of well placed enemies and other obstacles. There are also quiet a few puzzles, but sadly most of them have a text sign next to them which tells you what to do. Each level features an end boss, and every of them is different. I especially liked the Rocket Turtle at the end of the third level. The 4th level, called ‘The Crate Zone’ was almost completely redone, and like I said before, there was a new level added. That new level is not really a new level though, it’s the one you were playing earlier with Froggy. Still, it did add a nice touch.

Another good point of the Froggy Quest is that it is not easy. The enemies are often placed in very strategical locations, sometimes so evilish that it’s hardly possible to dodge attacks, but the many safepoints make up for that. The text signs next to the puzzles I didn’t like, but I can live with it.

A huge amount of work has been spent on this episode, which is easily noticable. There are a lot of inventive ideas, original bosses and every level is different from the one you were in before.

The eyecandy is also good. There are no tilebugs, and all the tilesets were used in a nice way. The ending tileset, which was made by the author himself has a bad palette, but I won’t deduct points for it, as there is an excusion in the readme file.

The story, although being not the best I’ve ever seen, is easily understandable, logical and gives it all a reason.

Overall, this is a very cool episode, the only downfall is that it was a little bit short, I began playing yesterday evening and finished today morning.

Still, a must download, and I hope to see more stuff from the author in the future. ;)

Rating increased from 8.2 to 9.0

Let’s put this to the test, the last two things I rated were below 1.5. Can you do better?

EYECANDY: Hmmm, I told you to use the other layers, and you didn’t!!!:( You only used layers 4 and 8. Eyecandy: not your strongpoint, but the only good point is the two layers you use are fixed.

ITEMS: Well you used items this time, but you could fit a lot more than that in.

ENEMIES: YOU USED ENEMIES ( YAAAAAAYYY!!!!) but you didn’t use them correctly, you overused them a bit.

RATING: 2.0

FUNOMETER: 6.1

FINAL COMMENT: You finaly reached 2, try to keep on doing your layers fixed and to not overuse enemies. And next time you use a boss, PLEASE PUT IN CARROTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, I would review, but after I killed some guys called “army” (hey, they didn’t move) there was a text sign that said I should hit the crate to get there when I need the crate or something of this sort. Actually, I don’t know what to do here, and ‘cause there’s no way to get outta here I couldn’t finish :(

Simmykrantz, can you help me?

DON’T MAKE THE SAME FILENAMES AS THE ONES FROM OFFICIAL LEVELS DUDE!
Sorry, but I don’t wanna overwrite the original diamondus level. Please fix that, then I will review. Send me a private message if you have fixed that.

Ok, I’m not good in rating tile sets, but I will try :-)

MASKING
The masking is very smoothly done, I didn’t got stuck in the example level and there aren’t any masking bugs.
Also, what looks like it’s masked, IS masked (very good) :-)
SCORE: 9.0

COLORS
The colors are very nice, I didn’t see the original jazz jackrabbit exoticus levels, but I really like the colors here. The winter version is cool.
SCORE: 8.7

GRAPHIC QUALITY
The graphic quality is high, the tiles fit together well and look very smooth.
SCORE: 8.5

THEME
The tileset has a theme of an exotic island, you can build a beach, a cave something that looks like a castle build with lego :), a forest and a black hole or something :)
5 themes in 1 tileset is great, but I don’t like the castle thingy :P
SCORE: 9.5

MISSING TILES
All the tiles I needed are there. The tileset has poles, selfmade blocks which look really cool, tubes, text signs from Jazz Jackrabbit which could work fine with Trigger Zone and more stuff.
SCORE: 9.7

USEFULLNESS
This tileset is very useful, there are 5 different themes, different backgrounds, a textured background, 2 palletes, event stuff and all you need to build a cool level.
SCORE: 9.7

TILE PLACEMENT
The tile placement is good, you fastly get to all you need, I only think those trees could be a bit more up (because I always had to switch up and down).
SCORE: 8.0

So, that’s all, I don’t really know how to rate this, I don’t review tilesets often :-) so I’ll just agree with the others and rate this 8.5

GOOD JOB

NOTES
I’m using your tileset in my episode. KeEp Up ThE gOoD wOrK :)

_PHT

EDIT: Sorry, my episode got stopped because I ran outta creativity, so I won’t continue it.[This review has been edited by PHT]

Okay. Just stand in our community and make more levels. Only don’t upload all of them. When I played it with you… I wasn’t bored from bugs like trigger zone in battle or last-tile using… No, that wasn’t that worst. Just look at eyecandy and you will understand. No ammo, stupid leveldesign. Maybe you can get 2.5 for this but only for much much bigger level… It’s something about 128×128 or I don’t know and it’s not good for any type of game. With this level can have fun nobody but you…
Just keep practicing.

Hmm..interesting level. Here’s my review:

CHECKLIST
[x] Single player mode
[-] Multiplayer mode
[x] Playable with Jazz
[x] Playable with Spaz
[x] Playable with Lori
[x] Easy/medium/hard setting

STORY
This level doesn’t have a real story, you just have the mission to go “back in time”. I don’t really know what this does mean, but I guessed I’d have to find the exit. Because there is the try of a story I’ll give a 2.5 here.
SCORE: 2.5

LVL DESIGN AND EYECANDY AND…STUFF
The lvl design has two parts, one normal part where you shoot enemies and some mce jazzes (good!) and meet some swearing cars :-)
And one which is called Skydiving. You have to find a coin first, but it isn’t really hard to find (I don’t remember where it was :) )
Then you fall, and fall and fall and grab some diamonds on the way down. At first it’s fun, but then it gets boring. The last part with those gem rings is totally pointless because gem rings don’t give you points and you already (should) have over 100 gems. There could be more variety in gems and some obstacles.
The eyecandy was ok, There was a background layer and a tiny bit in layer 3. What confused me at the start is that all here is pink :-)
Oh, I forgot after skydiving you have to beat a robot. Sadly, this is totally easy if you got the ice powerup (which is easy to get), because once a robot boss is freezed, he doesn’t move and you can easily shoot him with blaster.
After the endboss the game counted about…2300 gems (!!) :-)
SCORE: 5.5

GAMEPLAY
The gameplay was ok, but there could be more items, more variety in the skydiving part and it could be a bit harder.
SCORE: 5.0

LENGTH
The level took me 6 minutes, but I think the skydiving is too long.
SCORE: 6.0

AMMO AND OTHER WEAPONS STUFF
Ammo placement is very bad. There is only one ice powerup, which lets you deactivate the boss. There should have been more ammo + no freezer ammo (if you use the robot boss, be sure the player can’t have ice unless he cheats).
SCORE: 1.5

BADDIES
The enemy placement is ok, those mce jazzes are good. After the skydiving part you get sucked into the boss (oh dear). The boss is too easy because of that ice powerup.
SCORE: 4.5

HURT EVENTS AND OTHER OBSTACLES
There aren’t any other obstacles, I wish there would be some in the skydiving (would make it less boring). Oh, I forgot you need a coin for skydiving, but that’s way too less.
SCORE: 2.0

TILESETS
The author used the megamegatropolis tileset from Disguise. He used a weird pink version and that’s original.
SCORE: 7.5

USE OF TILESETS
The tileset use is neither good nor bad. It’s average. I think there could be more stuff in layer 3 and maybe a second background layer. The skydiving parts should have more eyecandy. And I think layer 8 moves a bit too fast, but that’s only my opinion.
SCORE: 5.0

CONCLUSION
This level is ok, but needs several fixing. Next time make your level more interesting, use ammo and more eyecandy.
DOWNLOAD? Your decision
HOST? I think the skydiving idea could be used very well for a treasure hunt level (hint hint!!) but with less gems :)
LEVEL RANK: Average
——————-
FINAL RATING: 5.2
——————-

KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK AND CONTINUE MAKING JAZZ JACKRABBIT 2 LEVELS!

_PHT

NOTES
Oh and please don’t get mad that I rated lower than the other ones :-)
I’m a bad guy muahuahahahaahaaaaaa
joking :-)

See you

[EDIT] + 0.5 Bonus Pointz because Nim helped me out with that MCE thingy
You rule dude :D[This review has been edited by PHT]

WOWOWOWOWOWOW!!!

Masking: No masking bugs, or were there… i dont remember but this conversion doesnt have one tile missing (that is used in JJ1) and i think i saw some new tiles or am i thinkin of the wrong tileset? Nothing missing here.

Layer possibilities: I dont see a way that layers 6,2 or 1 can be used but more than usual is possible to use. Nice background and like the pezrock original one. There are many ways to use this tileset and this is one of my favourites.

JJ1 pezrock to this: On this one it has better graphics, and i think i recall more tiles or new ones and also like JJ1 Pezrock, this tileset rocks.

Other stuff: This tileset rocks, and it is simple to use. The only thing that brings it down is no music, i really like the Pezrock music, someone else uploaded it later at some point but it took me a while to find.

Overall: this tileset rocks!

Leme rate this:

EYECANDY: Good. Lots of eyecandy!!!!

AMMO: Not too much ammo.

SIZE: A bit too small.

RATING: 6.5

FUNOMETER: 4.8

FINAL COMMENT: Good level.

Very interesting lvl, with cars swearing at u…

EYECANDY: Not too goood but it is using a hard to use tileset which i rate u higher for, though i am currently makin something with it. U used 4 layers which is exactly average… i see quite a few bugs when i play but none are horrible… The eyecandy is reasonably above average, coz it is usin a rlly hard-to-use tileset.

LEVEL: This lvl isnt fantastic, though there are rude cars about… =P. There are a few original ideas here, there are MCEs and trigger zones that get u the freezer PU. which is good… and also the skydiving idea is really cool, and fun unless u get hurt by the dragons in the wall… which is annoyin. Not a straight lvl which is good. and this lvl isnt that short, not much secrets (or maybe none). there are some traps that can be irritating…

Pickups: Yay… not bad placement. it is above average, and the lvl doesnt keep on doin one pickup, (apart from the gems in the skydiving, which is fun). the placement could be better again.

Other Stuff: Music suits lvls, and there are winds (actually conveyor belts) for the MCEs, i’m just wondering: couldnt u put the belt and spring in the wall? The name suits the lvl in this case. again no nxt lvl. and very wierd… it is all pink!

Overall: this is good, not too good, but good

HAH! Row odin thinks Tiger lily is a new Evilmike… How dumb can u get, comparing Evilmike The Great to tiger lily the FEMALE! lol! 7.7 is also an overrate! Oh well here is my review:

Eyecandy:
Like violet said no glaring bugs…. but not too much of a good eyecandy, disguise’s head makes the lvl’s eyecandy better! No textured background… no layers 7,6,5,2,1, oh well at least u used layer3. The tiles are all the same type, which is bad though this is ur first lvl, i cant make my review all kind for that. so the eyecandy is below average but it can be better in a few ways…

LEVEL:
The lvl is quite short and it can be fun, and actually its better timing urself but this lvl is good in ways, interesting secrets but the coins are in the secret… so u must find the secret to get Seeker PU which coins get u, not many ppl put coins and rabbits that warp u but this lvl did, this is another good thing, this lvl is far tooo short even though u r female, i still think it is short.

Pickups: The placement wasnt great but wasnt bad here it is above average… that ups my rating. but still it can be a lot better, try lvls with good eyecandy and placement for examples to hlp u…

Other stuff: the music doesnt really suit the lvl, and the good part of the music comes a bit near the end even if u collect everthing. Also this is a really wierd lvl name… “Goody Two Shoes”. Also there is no nxt lvl setting, which is kinda annoyin. one good point is that there is lighting effects and average event placement.

overall: not too good, not too bad… try and shape ur lvls nxt time and make it bigger! Odin’s review shouldnt really count, as he is just wierd and he likes crap lvls not that any good lvls are bad, it is just that Odin thinks it deserves 7.7, and voilet thinks 4.2 which is more reasonable. If voilet thinks my orbitus lvl deserves a 7.2, then this deserves a 3.0…

AT J20 WE ARE NOT SEXIST!!! OR ARE WE?[This review has been edited by sabaspaz]

(Rating removal. -Trafton)[This review has been edited by Trafton AT]

Clarification: this was an Agama clone and is not the real Agama. [This review has been edited by FQuist]

(Rating removal. -Trafton)[This review has been edited by Trafton AT]